et non sapientior

LONDON (AFP) – London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to demonize Muslims after a double car bomb plot was foiled in the capital, amid fears of a Islamist terror threat.
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At the same time he criticized Britain over its ties with Saudi Arabia, which he said had fuelled intolerance in the past through its Wahhabist form of Islam, creating a “major problem.”
“In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims,” he told BBC Radio.
“They have played a good and active and growing role in creating a multi-cultural society,” he added.

I just love how everyone rushes to defend these folks after they blow something up. Where are the muslims condemning these acts? I can’t recall the last time that a Jew blew something up while praising G_d, but I somehow doubt that Ken rushed to caution folks about demonizing jews…

Homicides soar in second-tier East Coast citiesLack of immigrants, shift to anti-terrorism cited as possible explanations
Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities in a bloodstained corridor along the East Coast are seeing a surge in killings, and one of the most provocative explanations offered by criminal-justice experts is this: not enough new immigrants.
The theory holds that waves of hardworking, ambitious immigrants reinvigorate desperately poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods and help keep crime down.

Well, I can see no one’s asking LA about their perpetual wave of wonderful new immigrants helping keep crime down in Hispanic neighborhoods and why might that be, hmmm? And as far a Jacksonville’s statistics go, lemme share what an Orlando police officer told us last year when they were the ‘murder capital ‘of Florida.

“If you’re not buying drugs, chances are you’ll never get killed.”

Which, coincidentally, happens to be the same thing I heard in Jacksonville this April. Doesn’t have a thing to do with immigrants keeping the peace. Has to do with the already criminal element getting pissed and using a piece when they don’t ~ or can’t ~ get a piece or somebody owes someone for a piece.
Immigrants my patootie.

Egypt Officials Ban Female Circumcision
The death of a 12-year-old Egyptian girl at the hands of a doctor performing female circumcision has sparked a public outcry and prompted health and religious authorities to ban the practice.
The girl, Badour Shaker, died this month while undergoing the procedure in an illegal clinic in the southern town of Maghagh. Her mother, Zeniab Abdel Ghani, told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that she paid about $9 to a female physician to perform the procedure.

Poor puddin’. As a mother who’d been through the same horror, how could you do that to your little girl?

This NPR story on great opening lines to hook the younger set got me thinking. I laughed at the very last book:

The Narnia books by C.S. Lewis are so popular already that I only want to mention that the first line of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is one of those classic sentences that, once heard, stick in your head forever:

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

Now, THAT’S a classic. Anyone care to contribute their favorites from the bookshelves?
Or, better yet ~ as we once did in a fiction exercise ~ write your own.

Police have confirmed that not one, but two massive car bombs were set to explode in the heart of London’s West End.
The first, in Haymarket, was packed with petrol, gas cannisters and nails, and was defused after police were alerted by an ambulance crew called to an incident at a nearby nightclub.
The second was in a car that was illegally parked nearby and towed to the Park Lane car pound.
…In a news conference Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said the second car, a blue hybrid Mercedes, was parked a few hundred yards from the first in Cockspur Street which runs between Haymarket and Trafalgar Square.
It was issued with a parking ticket at around 2:30am before being towed to the Park Lane car pound where staff alerted police.

There has to be a way to track incendiary German engineering, you would think. This second one is a hybrid, so definately late model, right? It’s not like they picked up a pair of trashed Yugos for a couple hundred bucks cash.

Dang if this one little line in the West Escambia newsbrief wasn’t bugging the beejeesus out of me. I’d read it in the paper two days in a row.

The Florida Highway Patrol will conduct a roadside sobriety checkpoint between 10 p.m. today and 2 a.m. Saturday. The checkpoint will be on Sorrento Road in front of the Winn-Dixie store.
There will be approximately 25 uniformed officers participating, as well as support personnel from the Emerald Coast MADD Chapter. Other participating agencies include the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Pensacola Police Department, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Environmental Protection.
Vehicles will be stopped to check for driver impairment and other violations.

My first thought was “WTF is MADD doing there?” So I called the Florida Highway Patrol and asked. The receptionist was very friendly until I repeated my initial question.
“Well, they’re trying to get drunks off the road!”
“Yes, but they’re law enforcement. They’re supposed to. I was curious why MADD is mentioned. Why are they part of the checkpoint if they’re not law enforcement?”
[sputter] “They’re support personnel ~ they’ll have coffee and water for the officers. Sometimes they set up a tent.”
“Oh, that’s very nice on a hot night, I’m sure. I was just curious what part they played in an official exercise. Thank you.”
She was pretty disgusted that I asked, honestly. Got a tad strident with her tone when I didn’t seem to capeche that MADD had a right to be in EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE.
Then, as I read more, I’m like “Bangla-cola cops? They have no jurisdiction in the county.” For that matter, Santa Rosa is the next county over to the east, so WTF are those guys doing all the way clean over here almost to Alabammy?” Honest to God, I thought we had enough law enforcement in our own county to deal with a checkpoint.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a van in the parking lot carrying a colonoscopy probe, too.
Yeah. That’d be a waste. They’re already up there.

Animal lovers hit the roof after it was revealed that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney strapped his Irish setter to the top of his car during a 12-hour family drive from Boston to Ontario, terrifying the hapless dog and causing a health hazard to fellow road-users.
According to the Boston Globe, the former Massachusetts governor placed the dog, called Seamus, in a kennel attached to the roof of his white Chevy station wagon. He and his wife and five sons then set off on holiday.
After a few miles, Mr Romney’s eldest son, Tagg, raised the alarm. “Dad!” he yelled. “Gross!” A brown liquid was dripping down the rear windscreen.

All his millions and he’s too cheap/stoopid to spring for a kennel (and I mean the doggie hotel kind)?

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) — An attorney for a former astronaut wanted to set the record straight Friday: Lisa Nowak didn’t wear diapers during the 950-mile road trip to confront a romantic rival.
“The biggest lie in this preposterous tale that has been told is that my client drove from Houston, Texas, to Orlando, Florida, nonstop, wearing a diaper,” Donald Lykkebak said after filing motions to suppress evidence in Nowak’s criminal case. “That is an absolute fabrication.”
The tidbit that Nowak wore diapers during her trip was written in the police report filed after Nowak’s arrest in February. The diaper detail became fodder for late-night TV comics and talk radio and even inspired an episode of the NBC show “Law & Order.”
There were toddler-size diapers in her car when she was arrested, but they were several years old, Lykkebak said. Nowak and her family had used them when Houston was evacuated in 2005 during Hurricane Rita, he said.

It’s comforting to know that she and her family shared the diapers on a previous trip.

WILLIAMS, Ariz. — A 65-year-old St. Louis man who went missing Sunday night after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, has been found two miles from where he was dropped off, according to police in Williams, Ariz.
Police said Roosevelt Sims, a factory worker who had just retired last week, was discovered Thursday night walking along the railroad tracks barefoot by Coconino County sheriff’s deputies.
Deputies said he was dehydrated and disoriented.

If this becomes a habit well obviously I’m going to the doctor for a complete evaluation but when he’s right he’s right

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out list of political shortcomings he sees in the Bush administration but said he opposes impeachment for either President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.
Obama said he would not back such a move, although he has been distressed by the “loose ethical standards, the secrecy and incompetence” of a “variety of characters” in the administration.
“There’s a way to bring an end to those practices, you know: vote the bums out,” the presidential candidate said, without naming Bush or Cheney. “That’s how our system is designed.”
The term for Bush and Cheney ends on Jan. 20, 2009. Bush cannot constitutionally run for a third term, and Cheney has said he will not run to succeed Bush.
Obama, a Harvard law school graduate and former lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said impeachment should not be used as a standard political tool.
“I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breeches, and intentional breeches of the president’s authority,” he said.
“I believe if we began impeachment proceedings we will be engulfed in more of the politics that has made Washington dysfunction,” he added. “We would once again, rather than attending to the people’s business, be engaged in a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, non-stop circus.”

I know it’s all cartoons and staged mayhem with steroid monsters. But ya think maybe there’d have been one braincell left between the lot of them that might have kicked in and whispered “Maybe a three hour tribute to a guy who just murdered his wife and seven year old son is in…questionable taste…maybe. What is your braincell telling you?”
Obviously, one braincell ~ in damage control mode ~ is saying “Nobody told us!“. Amazing, when the rest of the country knew. Of course, in true, big time wrestling fashion, the real one/true braincell is saying, “Let’s get that DVD up for sale, ASAP!”

WWE Monday Night Raw Chris Benoit Tribute Show 2007-06-25 XviD-SC-SDH
WWE Monday Night Raw
Chris Benoit Tribute Show
American Bank Center
Corpus Christi, Texas
June 25, 2007
This special Monday Night Raw Chris Benoit Tribute Show is deadicated to the memory of the Rabid Wolverine Chris Benoit and his wife Nancy Benoit (Woman) and their son Daniel Benoit who were found dead today in their Atlanta, Georgia area home.
…Rest In Peace Chris Benoit you will never be forgotten and you and Eddie Guerrero
are now together again!!!
StoneCold420
June 25, 2007

Hot Air has Cavuto’s interview with Tommy Chong up, and it is one of the funniest clips you’ll see, a completely burnt-out comedian playing political philosopher.
One of the commentators posted this link

Car bomb found in central London
Haymarket
Police say the area will be closed for some time
Police have disabled a car bomb containing gas cylinders in the heart of central London.
Officers carried out a controlled explosion after reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in Haymarket shortly before 0200 BST (0100 GMT).
The area was cordoned off while police examined what they described as a “potentially viable explosive device”.
…Bouncers from a nearby nightclub said they saw the car being driven erratically before it crashed into a bin. They said the driver then got out and ran off.
Police sources have confirmed that gas canisters were involved in the incident, close to Piccadilly Circus.
But Scotland Yard has refused to comment on reports that a large number of nails were found in the car.
One police source said the bomb was a “big device” and posed a real and substantial threat to the area around Haymarket, which is in London’s theatreland.
But a Westminster source said it was a “relatively small” device.

Hopefully there will be enough evidence to find out who tried to do this. The fact that they used a Mercedes shows some cunning, as a beat-up jalopy or small truck would likely arouse more attention than a nice new expensive sedan.Tim Blair, of course, blames us Presbyterians.

A very serious failure occurred on the part of India’s Meteorological Department (IMD) yesterday, when they failed to provide adequate warnings for a devastating tropical cyclone that hit Pakistan. Cyclone 03B, which struck the coast of Pakistan at 02 GMT June 27, has killed at least 17 and left 250,000 homeless in that nation, according to early news reports. Under mandate from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), India is responsible for warning the shores of all nations along the North Indian Ocean, including Pakistan. Cyclone 03B was at least a strong tropical storm when it hit Pakistan, and was probably a Category 1 hurricane. Microwave satellite imagery near the time of landfall (Figure 1) shows a well-developed tropical cyclone with spiral banding and a cloud free eye. Yet IMD never even gave the storm a name, and merely classified it as a a “deep depression,” with winds less than tropical storm force (39 mph). At 00 GMT June 26, two hours before landfall, the position of Cyclone 03B given by IMD was probably in error by at least 60 miles. One hour later, at 01 GMT, with landfall just one hour away, the IMD shipping advisory said that landfall was still 12 hours away. The IMD website, with the warnings, was offline and not available for approximately twelve hours beginning with the landfall period. It’s important not to judge IMD before all the facts are known, but I can’t fathom any excuse that can account for what appears, at best, to be criminal incompetence. I hope the WMO fully investigates this complete failure of India’s Meteorological Department to protect the lives and welfare of those living along the Pakistani coast.

PHOENIX — A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.

Even if the guy was drunk how do they justify this?

“He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.
Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet.
Amtrak personnel told police dispatchers that Sims was drunk and unruly.
The Sims family said Sims is diabetic and was going into shock.

Why not throw people overboard on ships? Hell, open up the 767’s door at 35,000 feet and off you go!
Somebody should be facing a lot of jail time even if they somehow find this guy alive.

Thank god. And Hot Air has the list of who voted how. As I live in NJ, both of my Senators voted for this abomination. I encourage everyone to remember how these fools voted, and hold these pompous fools accountable.

Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey
By BEN CLERKIN
They were toys destined only to bob up and down in nothing bigger than a child’s bath – but so far they have floated halfway around the world.
The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago.
Since then they have travelled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank, landing in Hawaii and even spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack.
And now they are heading straight for Britain. At some point this summer they are expected to be spotted on beaches in South-West England.

A pretty neat story, and good science data for free. Who needs multi-million dollar government grants when all you need to do is dump an occasional container of toys (or Nikes) into the drink?
(h/t to the ever-naughty Theo Spark, who is perilous to read at work)

Can you imagine a police chief in the US making a statement like that?

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Police killed at least 13 suspected drug traffickers in a huge operation Wednesday aimed at ending a war between authorities and gangs that has raged for nearly two months in a Rio de Janeiro slum.
Authorities said 1,350 heavily armed officers and elite federal police supported by helicopters and armored cars descended on the sprawling Alemao shantytown and were met by automatic weapon fire and hand grenades.
At least 40 people have been killed and more than 80 injured since May 2, when the conflict in the Alemao was touched off by the killing of two police officers.
At least 10 people were wounded in Wednesday’s operation, most of them innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire or hit by stray bullets — a rising concern in this city of 8 million.
Rio de Janeiro state security chief Jose Mariano Beltrame earlier said 18 were killed Wednesday, then revised the death toll to 13 without giving an explanation. The dead were all suspected members of gangs that control the city’s thriving drug trade, he said.
“There were no innocent people killed,” Beltrame told a news conference, adding that the operation would continue indefinitely. Authorities said Wednesday’s death toll could rise because police believed some bodies had not been recovered.
Beltrame said police entered areas of the slum where they have had no presence for years, resulting in intense fighting.

The slums in Rio are notorious for their drug activities and vigilante violence.
Sadly, so are the Brazilian police forces. As a dear friend of mine says, if you are robbed in Brazil you generally don’t call the police because they’ll just rob you again.

…[Lou] Dobbs contends the Senate has trampled the democratic process. The bill, he notes, has not required a single public hearing or advanced out of committee. “There has been no rigorous research whatsoever by any government agency or department of the economic, social, and fiscal impact of this legislation,” the CNN host explained. “This is striking even in Trotsky-like terms in an authoritarian government — but for it to occur in what is a democratic republic is, to me, absolutely shameful.”
…And Dobbs noted that when President Bush hosted business and Hispanic activist groups at the White House today to promote the immigration bill, one group was noticeably missing — there was no representative for America’s working middle class.

I’m so disgusted and dispirited by this immigration shamnesty sellout that i just can’t even post about it; the folks at HotAir have got it much better covered than I ever could.
It seems appropriate to me at this time when our elected leaders are giving away this country to pause and remember those who risked everything to make us great. My Bride and I took Daughter to Washington, D.C. last week to do the museums/government buildings tour. On Wednesday we had a tour of the White House which was rather disappointing, as we could not access very much of it and there were no staff in any of the rooms to explain what little of it we were actually seeing; every ramshackle castle in Scotland provides at least that, for gosh sake.
Afterwards we took the wonderful DC Metro out to Arlington Cemetery to pay our respects and meet someone. It’s an amazingly somber, sad and dignified place. It’s also quite large, as there are some 300,000 glorious patriots buried there. The staff at the Visitor Center are exceedingly kind and helpful, and if you give them a name they will give you directions on how to find their plot. Unfortunately, due to its size the only real way to get around it on a hot summer day is via one of the trolley buses that loop around it, and, as Daughter pointed out, while the operators mean well they can’t help but add a touch of a carnival/theme park atmosphere to a place that is deserving of our utmost respect and dignity.
On a bright sunny June day those markers of sacrifice burn into you, and humble you.
As we walked to our meeting one marker jumped out at me:
Bugler John Cook, Medal of Honor, Battle of Antietam. Then I looked at his birth date, and it hit me. The battle was September 17th, 1862. He was 15. 15.
My God.
A little farther on and it was finally time. Time to meet someone I’d heard about all my life, whose strong, warm picture graced the mantelpiece of the house I grew up in, whose influence and living memory shaped my and my siblings’ life, but a man that none of us ever met, as he died the year after my parents’ wedding while they were in Japan with the newly-born Tree Hugging Sister,
our Grandfather
I wish with all my heart that our first “hello” could have consisted of more than my tears on the grass.
Update: Sis scanned the photo

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany has barred the makers of a movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler from filming at German military sites because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.
Cruise, also one of the film’s producers, is a member of the Church of Scientology which the German government does not recognize as a church. Berlin says it masquerades as a religion to make money, a charge Scientology leaders reject.

WASHINGTON – A judge ruled Monday in favor of a dry cleaner that was sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants.
The owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city’s Consumer Protection Act by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign once displayed in the store window, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled.
Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.
Pearson, an administrative law judge, originally sought $67 million from the Chungs, claiming they lost a pair of suit trousers and later tried to give him a pair that he said was not his. He arrived at the amount by adding up years of alleged law violations and almost $2 million in common law claims.

Looks like he lost his suit twice…
I hope there is some sort of disciplinary action taken against this judge. He’s the poster boy for tort reform.
“It was the trousers…”

Candidates for national office are discouraged from using Virginia to raise unlimited amounts of cash by a new requirement that at least half of what they raise be spent on campaigns for state office in Virginia.

On its face, it’s pretty confusing. Why would I raise money for my presidential campaign, when half is already spoken for by the state to fund…what? The governor’s race? State rep? Richmond mayor? I mean, do I get to pick the candidate my hard raised cash goes to?
And who determines what “at least half” equates to? What if someone doesn’t like someone else’s politics and determines more than half is required?